


The Joy of Christmas

by BlackKittens



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Presents, Questioning, Robots, Silly, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21942052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackKittens/pseuds/BlackKittens
Summary: Baymax understands the heart of Christmas - he knows how being with one's loved ones can increase one's neurotransmitters - but he doesn't understand how the rest of it brings joy to his patients. After all, what is so crucial about a Christmas tree or decorative wrapping paper to joy? So he seeks out answers.
Kudos: 16





	The Joy of Christmas

Baymax was not an emotional being; he was a robot and his AI was not programmed to mimic emotions, let alone feel them. Nevertheless, although he couldn't understand emotions from a first hand perspective, he _was_ programmed to understand them. It was vital to his function as a healthcare companion.

Emotions were often an additional indicator of how serious the pain was (though not always) and emotional health was just as important as physical health, especially in a field where the state of one's body could cause one and their loved ones' anything from slight annoyance to deep grief or harrowing depression. It was a nurse's job to alleviate physical symptoms and comfort those in need. He was designed to take away pain - and in order to do that, he had to understand the importance of emotions. And where he didn't understand, he must learn.

Yet that did not mean he always understand what _caused_ certain emotions or why his patients sought those specific causes out.

Horror movies, for example, were a mystery to him. They caused much fright; many a time he had detected in Hiro, Tadashi, Aunt Cass, and their band of friends rapid heart rates, muscle tension, and an increase in cortisol (stress) and adrenaline. The fight or flight system was activated, a procedure the body followed in order to fend off an attacker or flee to safety, a mechanism intended to protect one from harm. But they were in no danger and thought the activation fun. He did not understand why his patients would deliberately activate their fight or flight system. Hiro and Tadashi had explained that it causes a 'thrill' feeling, and his scanners seemed to support this due to the sudden presence of joy he detected.

However, there was no such detection when his patients were truly in danger or merely caught off guard, and they came out of the experience anywhere from irritated to severely distressed. They neither found nor professed joy in those instances.

Halloween, likewise, had not made sense to him. It was _celebration_ of _fear._ He did not detect much fear, though, unless his patients watched a horror movie or played a surprise prank on one another. The things he was told were scary, like the decorations Aunt Cass hung in the café, did not activate the fight or flight system or even create a slight increase in cortisol. They only created joy.

But while Halloween and the thrills and joy of horror movies baffled him the most, Baymax did not understand the concept of Christmas any better. At the very least, it did not seem to contradict itself, the way horror and Halloween did. But he did not understand why a pine tree decorated in bulbs, tinsel, and a star, or red hats trimmed with white fur, or the notion of a man coming down a chimney of all impossible things, sparked the joy and excitement in his patients that it did. He understood the presents - humans liked to receive - but why Aunt Cass experienced an increase in pleasure at buying snowflake wrapping paper over plain blue wrapping paper was beyond him.

To be fair, there was much Baymax did not understand. And he was content to merely leave them be because his scans and touch tests confirmed they risked no harm, and were not related to his functions as a healthcare companion. In many cases, he even found there were surprising benefits, such as increasing his patients' moods. Baymax wanted his patients to be happy and well. He would do whatever he deemed necessary to achieve this, even if he did not fully understand it at first, such as the necessity of flying or where a little robot in a petri dish wanted to go. And in those specific cases, it had lead to more good; flying helped them reach endangered patients faster, and following Hiro's microbot had ultimately led to the rescue of Abigail Callaghan. He was a curious bot, one who was designed to ask questions and seek out new knowledge in any given situation where it was required in order to be a better healthcare companion, but he did not have to understand everything. He was content with that.

Still, he had to ask. What on Earth was about this holiday and all its aspects made it so joyful?

* * *

Naturally, he turned to his creator first.

"I told you, Baymax, holidays make people happy," Tadashi explained casually, sitting at his work desk in his section of the brothers' bedroom, sketching a design for a present he was building for Honey Lemon. "It gives them a chance to relax, indulge in the thing they like, like candy or cookies or movie specials, and have fun together. Christmas is the same. In fact, it's the celebration _of_ being together with your family and friends."

"I understand the importance of family and friends," Baymax said, "as well as the comfort of relaxation and indulgence in food and pass times. But I do not see what Christmas trees, wreaths, or snowflake wrapping paper have to do with such things."

Tadashi threw up his non-dominant hand, shrugging as he continued to sketch and mark notes on the details of his project. "They help create the atmosphere. Get you into the headspace of Christmas. It's not like you need a tree to love your family."

Baymax blinked. That was exactly his point. "Then why do you need one in December? Is it more difficult for the brain or thyroid to produce: serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins in this time of year? Does it relate to: seasonal depression?"

He may have had a lead there.

Sadly, Tadashi shook his head. He turned around in his chair, crooking his arm on the back. "No, that's not it. Plenty of people don't celebrate Christmas and they're perfectly fine. It's more like...the holidays give you a _boost_ of those things, and it's easier to get that boost when you have the right atmosphere. Trees and wreaths and Christmas themed wrapping paper help create that atmosphere."

"But how?" Baymax pressed.

Tadashi closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, flicking his wrist. "I don't know, buddy, it just does."

* * *

He tried Hiro next.

Hiro had been squirrelly ever since the Christmas 'season' began, all hyped up, bouncing around, and rubbing his hands together in laughing glee at the prospect of Christmas arriving. His mood has been regularly high, even when calmed down and intensely focused on the minute details of his work. He went so far as to hum what Baymax had discovered were Christmas carols while he did.

"What makes Christmas joyful," Hiro repeated the question, shutting the kitchen fridge with a plastic covered plate of frosted Santa and reindeer cookies in his other hand. "Well, presents are awesome. People love presents. _I_ love presents. Isn't that right, bestest big brother in the whole wide world?" he called out the last sentence, hollering over the island counter into the living room, where Tadashi was playing on his phone on the couch.

Tadashi didn't so much as look up. "Stop sucking up, Hiro; you're practically asking Santa to bring you coal for being a greedy brat."

"Ha ha!" Hiro propped himself over the counter. He started peeling at the plastic over the cookies. "Why is it so suspicious that I love my big brother? My big, smart, heroic, genius, for-some-reason-all-the-girls-at-school-love-you brother?"

Tadashi bounced his ankle on his other knee. "You could have just said handsome. Minus one on your sucking up score."

Hiro hunched his shoulders and furrowed his brow. "Hmph. So, you're saying I don't love you, Tadashi?"

Tadashi smirked in amusement, still not looking up. _"_ I'm pretty confident you love me, Hiro, and _I_ love you back, so don't start. I'm not buying whatever it is you're sucking up to me over."

 _"What?"_ Hiro gasped overdramatically and put a delicate hand on his chest. "How could you accuse me of trying to suck up to you, to the point of saying _you_ don't love _me_ if you get don't me the new Robo-Electrica IX Program that'll make it a hundred times quicker to code bots and easier to perform over a dozen new functions and applications not possible on our current hard- and software in the house, _which_ only costs a measly four hundred and twenty-five dollars thanks to the Chrisrmas sale going on right now? Tadashi, how could possibly think so low of me?"

"Coal," Tadashi stated flatly, a laugh held back on his lips. "I already bought you your Christmas themed underwear, I'm done shopping for you. Trust me, you'll LOVE the picture of Santa's sleigh in the air on your butt; you'll unknowingly be the coolest kid on SFIT's campus."

Hiro glowered. "You better be lying."

"About making you the unknowingly coolest kid on campus? Never. If anyone saw you wearing them, they'd steal them off your body, I guarantee it," Tadashi bit his lip to stifle his laugh. "I had to fight ten whole grannies and a hundred college students foaming at the mouth to get you that underwear! But it was worth it, just for you, little brother. I'll take my repayment in the form of your grateful face on Christmas morning."

"That's ridiculous, even for you," Hiro spat. "Did Fred give you spiked eggnog this morning or something?"

"Fred believes in consent, my baby brother."

"Oh my god," Hiro threw his head back with a groan. "That's now what I meant and you know it!"

"Hiro," Baymax attempted to grab his attention back, "you have not answered my question. I am aware of the serotonin increase that comes with: gifts. What I am not aware of is how the shapes of these cookies also increases your serotonin. How do they differ from the normal circles Aunt Cass usually makes?"

Hiro picked a Santa up and munched its hat. "I don't know," he answered through his chews. "I like them. Reminds me I'm getting presents."

Tadashi scoffed loudly, finally raising his head. "You brat, do you ever think about anything else? Christmas is about spending time with your loved ones and cherishing them; you only get presents because we cherish you that much. See, this is why you're going to get coal."

"Baymax asked me about cookies!" Hiro shouted, waving his treat wildly. "And I know all that! I cherish all of you, too, from the bottom of my heart, 'til the end time, and on and on. But Robo-Electrica IX Program, Tadashi, Robo-Electrica IX Program!"

"You're not getting it," Tadashi retorted firmly as he went back to smiling at his screen. "Naughty, naughty."

"I am the goodest boy in the world!" Hiro couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice as he claimed it.

The brothers were teasing and toying with each other. Baymax wasn't sure what to do; it was like they stepped into their own little world that he couldn't possibly understand when they started playing up the greedy, bothersome little brother and seemingly disapproving yet thoroughly amused older brother. It was like one big inside joke, as Honey Lemon had once phrased it, that he simply did not get. All he did know was that Hiro did not constantly think of and prioritize presents as he was implying; he had already proven this month to be near as excited to help decorate the house, buy for their friends and family, wrap gifts, and watch Christmas movies on the couch with Tadashi and Aunt Cass. Not to mention his secret confession to Baymax that he was so thankful to spend another Christmas with Tadashi, after how close they came to losing him this past summer.

"Hiro," he tried one more time, "there must be something about these aspects of Christmas that make you joyful. Tadashi said it helps create an: atmosphere, but how? What does mean?"

Hiro finally turned to him, serious. Unfortunately, he shrugged. "I don't know. Whatever Tadashi said; atmosphere sounds about right. No one wants to hear about Santa Claus in March."

"Why?" Baymax insisted. "If it brings you joy, why not? What makes it relate to Christmas and Christmas only?"

"No clue," Hiro chirped, taking another munch of his cookie. "I mean, Christmas trees are German, right? And Christmas is based on a pagan holiday absorbed by Christianity to be Jesus' birthday, but most people don't celebrate it for that."

Baymax was even more lost.

Hiro patted his belly in sympathy. "Sorry, buddy, I got nothing. I don't know why any part of Christmas is Christmasy or why it makes us happy. I was just raised to know Santa is great, Rudolph is the best reindeer, and the lights are pretty to look at."

"Then it is an effect of nurturing?" he guessed. "You are taught to experience joy when you eat cookies shaped like Santa Claus?"

On some level it made sense, but on another it did not.

"Uh, no?" Hiro said. "I really don't know buddy. I just want to eat my cookie."

Suddenly, hands slammed on the island counter, making Hiro jump and hurl his cookie in the air. He barely caught it before it could fall to the floor.

"Hey, Hiro," Tadashi grinned widely, teeth pearly white. "Do you see what I just noticed?"

Hiro's eyes widened, confused and on alert. He held his cookie close to his chest. "Nooo… What?"

Tadashi pointed above the island counter. Hiro looked up.

Baymax did as well. Mistletoe hung from the ceiling.

"Mistletoe," Tadashi's eyes gleamed. "Where's my kiss, little brother? We're under the mistletoe. It's tradition, you know."

Hiro's eyes widened all the way. "Get away from me!" he screeched, and tried to beat it out of the kitchen.

Except Baymax's large body was in the way, and Tadashi was quick to round the corner through the tight space his body allowed.

Hiro whined in bitter defeat as Tadashi latched onto his shoulders and planted a big, loud, wet smooch on his cheek.

"Merry Christmas!" Tadashi cried delightedly.

* * *

"Christmas is about spending time with your loved ones and valuing the time you share together," Honey Lemon explained as she popped from window to window, examining the clothes and jewels behind the glass. "I mean, we can do that all year and it's not the only holiday to celebrate it, but it is one time of the year a lot of us set aside to. The rest is just for fun."

"For fun," Baymax repeated.

He, Tadashi, and Hiro had been dragged along by Honey Lemon to help shop for the rest of their friend group. The brothers had meandered away, arguing in front of a tech shop not far down the street about the program Hiro was desperate to buy. If Baymax were to turn his head, he'd still be able to see them jabbing and pointing at each other as they argued over the price. Baymax had chosen to stay with Honey Lemon, and take the chance she may have the answers to his questions.

"Yeah, for fun," she chirped, brushing a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. "Little kids believe in Santa Claus, but we don't; we're older and know better. But it's fun to pretend. Like...like when you read a good book or watch a good movie, and you want to geek out over it. Like what Fred does with his comics! So we have fun making cookies in Christmas shapes, setting up the tree, wearing ugly sweaters with reindeer and elves on them, and so on."

"I see." To an extant, Baymax understood Fred's obsession with comics, and he did understand the concept of fun. "So it is comparable to being a fan."

"Sort of," Honey Lemon replied.

Baymax was lost again.

"Don't think too hard about it," she advised, seemingly ably to sense his confusion, and waved it off. "All you need to know is the basics: it's a holiday, it's meant to bring people together and celebrate having each other, goodness and good will, and people like to have fun with the idea of Santa, gift-giving, and having Christmas parties. That's it."

Baymax considered that. Perhaps she was right. It wasn't as if Christmas were harmful, it did not relate in any way to his role as a healthcare companion either, and it did raise the spirits of his patients. Perhaps this was the best time to concede, as he did with much else, that it was fine not to understand.

Even so, several questions remained.

* * *

"You're basically asking for the meaning of Christmas, yeah?" Wasabi asked, leaning against the outer window of Tadashi's lab, a cup of warm coffee in his hand. The coffee had holly drawn around the sides of the cup.

Tadashi was currently in his lab, torn between finishing a last minute paper for one of his classes before finals began and wrapping Hiro's Christmas presents. It turned out he had gotten Hiro the program he had been asking for after all, though long before Hiro started begging for it, as well as a new action figure for his shelves. It was an extra present, because Tadashi hadn't been able to decide between the two. He'd mock-sobbed to Wasabi when the young man came to offer him a ride home that his wallet had been bled dry. Baymax did not know how a wallet could bleed. Whatever the case, he needed to finish editing his paper and get the presents wrapped, then he would be out.

"No," Baymax answered Wasabi's question. "I understand the purpose of Christmas. It is how it achieves this purpose that I don't understand. Tadashi said the aspects of Christmas help to create an atmosphere to enhance joy, Hiro made suggestions but was ultimately uncertain, and Honey Lemon said they are merely for fun. Wasabi, may I ask what is _you_ personally get out of Christmas artifacts and traditions? Perhaps learning from another's perspective will give me insight into understanding."

Wasabi stared at him, unsure. "Okay...? Um, it's nice. Most of the time I don't feel anything special. I might be a little more cheerful, in-between all the stressing out I do over gifts and classes. Uh, I get to go home and see my moms." At the mention of his parents, a sweet smile spread on his face. "Now they're into the festivities. They made Christmas the best when I was a kid. Making the gingerbread men and houses was the funnest part. And here at SFIT, with the others, it gives us a chance to relax and have a good time together. I guess all in all, Tadashi and Honey Lemon are right; all the décor and traditions gets us out of our usual, busy, hectic headspaces, and we have fun doing something different together. I mean, you don't drink eggnog all year or watch other people walk around with reindeer antlers."

Baymax tilted his head. He thought he was beginning to understand - all of that connected well together and made sense - but based on the data of his previous experiences, he didn't want to get ahead of himself. "Why Christmas, though? Why wouldn't you do those things year round? If presents can be given on birthdays and at other celebrations, why are eggnog, reindeer antlers, snowflake wrapping paper, and such forth relegated to only Christmas? Is there something special about these that they can only be practiced at this time of year? Will they not bring joy in, say, May?"

Wasabi scratched his head behind his ear. "Those are some loaded questions. Uh, I'd say no. It's tradition, I guess. And corporations making bank on all our holiday spending."

Baymax was right not to get ahead of himself. "I do not see."

Wasabi shrugged. "It's not exactly a secret that companies like to take advantage of the holidays to make an extra buck. That includes industries you wouldn't normally think of, like the wrapping paper industry. How much do we spend on that in December versus the rest of the year? Then again, it seems like corporations are eager to start 'celebrating' earlier and earlier each year. I've seen some places start putting up decorations in _October_ to get people in the mood to buy Christmas stuff."

"Because it brings people joy?" Baymax inquired slowly.

"So joyful they'll spend their money," Wasabi rolled his eyes. "Look, the companies aren't important, not to Christmas itself. We can talk about commercialization some other time. Point is, people want to be happy. And they like to be happy...in certain ways. And absence makes the heart fonder, right?"

Wasabi was losing Baymax quickly.

It appeared he could see that.

"It's all right," he told Baymax. "Truth is, I don't think most of us understand every bit of it. We just go with the flow because it's nice. Humans are just...finicky?"

Baymax was not positive on how to respond to that.

* * *

Gogo was not much help either, it seemed.

"What the others said," she responded easily when Baymax explained the situation to her in the café, where she was waiting for Tadashi so he could go gift shopping with her. "It's not that hard to get. Wasabi's right that we're finicky. We're a species that drowns ourselves in poisons because they either get the happy hormones flowing or lower our stress hormones. If anyone can understand why we're that way, that person hasn't been born or built yet. Honey Lemon and Tadashi are also right; everything's simply fun and it gets you out of your normal, every day way of thinking; it's breaks up the monotony. And we have fun. And then we don't do it again for most of the year because we're weird. Simple as that."

She seemed more at peace with the oddness of it all than anything else.

"I would rather you not drown yourselves in poisons," he told her.

She rolled her shoulders with a quick close of her eyes. "Yet we're all going to Fred's on Friday to get drunk on alcoholic eggnog. Oh well."

"Hiro is not old enough to drink."

"Who said Hiro was going?" she countered.

"He will not like being left behind," Baymax informed her.

Gogo narrowed her eyes. "Too bad. We're not giving up alcohol because we're friends with a kid and none of us are going to jail for him. Tadashi already said he doesn't trust Hiro not to sneak his own drink, so he's staying at home. Which is fine by me, because after finals, I _want_ to get black out drunk. If he comes along, we'll have to restrain ourselves. We'll see him on Saturday."

"And you will get drunk on alcoholic eggnog," Baymax added.

"On eggnog," Gogo confirmed.

"But drinking eggnog would not bring as much joy during the rest of the year as it does in December?" he questioned, because he had to.

Gogo actually pursed her lips and thought about it a few moments.

"Well," she eventually offered, "no, but the difference is probably negligible. Unless it's non-alcoholic."

* * *

"Hang overs suck," Fred whined that Saturday in the afternoon, when their whole friend group was in the Hamada garage. "Can someone take a hammer to my skull, please?"

"Ask me again when the sound of metal doesn't my head ring," Gogo quipped.

The five hung over college students were lounged around the old, red couch, computer chair, and extra that had been brought in for when Hiro and Tadashi worked in there at the same time. Specifically, Fred and Honey Lemon were sprawled on the couch over top Wasabi, who laid his head over the back in the middle, while Tadashi and Gogo were sloppily perched in the chairs.

Hiro and Baymax stood by the door, five glasses of water and one cup of steaming hot chocolate on a tray in Baymax's hand. Hiro tsked while Baymax went around distributing the water.

"This is why you should have let me come," he complained. "I would have kept you nerds in line."

Tadashi scoffed. "You'd be the drunkest of us all and Aunt Cass would be hanging my hide above the mantle like a pelt. We're not in the mood, Hiro."

Hiro made a judgmental noise in his throat. "Even if I wanted to _try_ it, I would not get that drunk!"

"Baymax," Tadashi droned lazily, "initiate the alcohol safety regulations program or whatever I called it. The one that goes into all the _rules_ of drinking, including the age restriction."

"No!" Gogo barked. "Then we all have to hear it."

"I have a file similar to what you are describing," Baymax informed his creator. "Did you mean: Alco- ?"

"Never mind, Baymax, I don't want my butt kicked," Tadashi rubbed the side of his face wearily.

He terminated the search.

"Yeah, yeah, I know I have to be twenty-one to drink," Hiro grouched. "But a cool older brother would let me have a _taste._ No one has to know. It's not going to mess my brain up that bad."

Tadashi narrowed his eyes. "Then it's a good thing you have a proud 'nerd' for an older brother, Hiro."

"And don't think we'd let you get away with that," Gogo snipped.

"Seconded," Wasabi moaned.

"Third," Honey Lemon voiced.

"Fourth, fifth, and seventh!" Fred flopped over the arm of the couch. He accepted the water Baymax handed him, the last glass. "Don't ever put yourself through this, little man; it's not worth it. _It's not worth it,"_ he whispered the end.

Baymax handed the tray back to Hiro, who promptly took his hot chocolate and slid the tray under his arm.

Fred sniffed the air. A crooked smile appeared on his face. "Ah, hot chocolate. That's what we should have drank instead. Festive, too, so it's not we're missing out on that part replacin' the eggnog. I love hot chocolate."

Baymax tilted his head. "Hot chocolate is festive?"

"You bet," Fred said. "About as festive as snow."

Snow was associated with Christmas.

Before Baymax could pose his question to Fred, however, Tadashi audibly groaned.

"Oh no," he moaned. "You're not going ask Fred why Christmas is joyful, are you? I swear, you've been asking _everybody,_ Baymax."

Baymax blinked. He had not asked everybody. He had yet to approach Aunt Cass, or any of the other students in the labs at SFIT, or a single patron of The Lucky Cat Café. Not to mention the rest of the world's population.

Hiro snickered. "Are you still on that, buddy?"

"Yes," Gogo answered for him. "He was asking me about it the other day."

Honey Lemon lolled her head. "It really is just fun, Baymax. Even if there are stupid hang overs like this sometimes..."

Wasabi forced himself to sit up straight. "Yeah, what she said. Plus what we talked about."

Fred, however, cocked his head over the edge of the couch arm, his eyes brightly curious. "No, no, ask me! I want to give it a shot! Maybe I can help! It would be so cool if I could teach a robot the true spirit of Christmas. What was the question again?"

Baymax stood tall. "I fail to understand how the many aspects of Christmas bring joy to you. I grasp the importance of spending time with loved ones and cherishing your relationships, and I am aware of how gifts - the act of receiving - make one excited or happy. But what do things like: Christmas trees, wreaths, or snowflake wrapping paper do to create joy? What is it about all of Christmas' festivities that increase one's serotonin and dopamine levels so dramatically?"

"Well, Fred?" Tadashi propped his cheek in his hand. "What have you got?"

Fred stuck his tongue out between his lips, debating the question in his head.

Everyone waited with curosity for his answer.

Finally, Fred's shoulders slumped, and his head rolled so far off the arm of the couch that his beanie fell off. He smiled stupidly. "I have no idea. Sorry, dude. I've got nothing on that."

Tadashi pushed himself up off his chair and came over to pat Baymax's arm, then lean on it for support. "Sorry, Baymax. I don't think you're going to find a satisfying answer. We could research the history of Christmas and how all these things came to be associated with it, but I don't know if that's going to help you either."

"Perhaps."

* * *

Christmas morning came in no time at all. Baymax found himself being activated quite early in the morning, while the sky was still gray outside. Hiro, dressed in his pajamas, bounced on his soles in front of his carrier, fists clenched in excitement.

"It's Christmas!" he shouted, throwing his arms up and splaying his fingers.

"Come on, Baymax," Tadashi yawned from not far behind Hiro, next to the divider, also in his pajamas and his hair unkempt for once, though his neurotransmitters indicated he was equally as excited as Hiro. He walked over and lightly smacked his shoulder. "Time for presents."

Hiro jumped in the air. "Race you, Tadashi!"

Tadashi's eyes flashed. "Oh, really? Then let's go. Loser has to give the other a Christmas kiss."

"NEVER!" Hiro bolted for the stairs.

Tadashi sped after him. His legs were longer, so Baymax wasn't surprised (for lack of a better term, since he couldn't feel surprise) as he waddled after them that Tadashi was able to push passed Hiro on the steps.

Neither commented on a kiss as they reached the bottom, though, instead whipping lightning fast around the corner into the living room.

Aunt Cass was there, chewing on a reindeer cookie on the couch while the boys threw themselves at the Christmas tree, which had a good amount of gifts beneath it. Like the boys, she, too, looked like she just crawled out of bed. Baymax made his way towards her.

"Hello, Aunt Cass," he greeted lightly.

"Hi, Baymax," she smiled warmly. "At least _somebody_ says hi to their aunt before ripping into their presents, _Hiro, Tadashi."_

The brothers promptly froze and looked up.

To be fair, only Hiro had begun ripping into a gift; Tadashi merely held one up.

"Sorry, Aunt Cass," they apologized together.

"Merry Christmas," Tadashi added. He picked himself up and strode over to her, leaning down to peck her cheek.

Aunt Cass chuckled under her breath.

Hiro scrambled up to do the same. "Merry Christmas!"

"Thank you," she replied pointedly. "Merry Christmas to you, too. Now you can rip into your presents!"

Both boys jumped back for the pile.

Baymax watched quietly, eventually picking up Mochi when the cat stood up on his leg meowing, and pet his fur while Tadashi and Hiro tore open the wrapping paper and whooped and yelled in glee at their gifts. Hiro hugged his new program to his chest and jokingly agreed to give Tadashi his 'stupid' kiss, which he did (though Tadashi cried foul when he felt Hiro's tongue on his cheek, which Hiro howled in laughter at, and Tadashi called him a knucklehead), and Tadashi went over the moon - as the expression went - when he saw the collection of semi-rare San Fransokyo Ninja baseball cards one of his grandparents had sent him. Aunt Cass received two presents from her nephews, a cat themed mug from Hiro whose handle was a curved paw and a new paint set for her easel paintings from Tadashi, each of which she loved. Every gift shot the three's neurotransmitter levels up, as Baymax had expected.

At the end of it all, Hiro swiped one last gift, a small, flat one, from a corner under the tree and bounded up to Baymax.

"Here you go, Baymax," he presented the gift with both hands, his arms straight. "Merry Christmas from me, Tadashi, and Aunt Cass."

Baymax blinked. That, he hadn't expected. He lifted his head towards Tadashi, his creator, for an explanation.

Tadashi chuckled. "Like it or not, you're part of the family now, pal. It was Hiro's idea."

Hiro beamed.

Baymax lowered his head to inspect the gift. It was wrapped in the same snowflake wrapping paper as all of Aunt Cass' presents for the brothers. He accepted it gingerly after putting Mochi down next to Aunt Cass, turned it over, and started to peel at the tape.

"No, no!" Hiro exclaimed. "Rip it, Baymax! Rip it open!"

He punctuated his demand with a horizontal punch through the air.

Baymax blinked. He splayed his fingers and grasped the edge of corner next to the tape, but he didn't do a terribly good job of 'ripping,' he thought. Nonetheless, the paper soon came off, and he reluctantly let it glide to the floor with the rest of the wrapping paper.

A light red ribbon with a sticky back stared up at him. The white middle read in big, cheery letters, _World's Best_ _Nurse._

"I didn't really know what to get you, since you're a robot," Hiro explained. "I thought about hospital tools or something, but Tadashi said giving you a scalpel or something was probably a bad idea."

He poked Baymax's inflated belly for emphasis.

"So," he continued, "since you probably weren't going to 'like' anything either, I figured we could go down the appreciative route. You've been a big help these past few months, with you know, being a healthcare companion, and you know-you know."

Callaghan, he was referring to. Stopping Callaghan. Aunt Cass was still in the room, preventing him from specifying aloud.

Baymax looked down at the ribbon. "Would it not make more sense to give an appreciative gift to Tadashi, then? He is the one who made me. I would not be here without him."

Hiro cocked his head to the side. "Tadashi already knows how much we love him and think he's amazing for making you."

"Aww!" Tadashi, from the floor behind him, grabbed Hiro around the shoulders in a tight hug, a silly smile on his face. "Thank you. Besides, this is for you, Baymax, not me. Like I said, you're part of the family now."

Baymax was a robot. He could not feel joy or appreciation for the ribbon. But he could see that it was a thoughtful, considerate gesture born out of love from his family - he was part of the family now - so he peeled the sticker cover off and carefully attached the ribbon to his chest, next to his access port.

"Thank you," he told the three of them sincerely. "It is a...nice present. How long should I wear it?"

"However long you want," Aunt Cass said. "The boys'll put it up somewhere when you take it off."

"We can put it on your carrier!" Hiro suggested.

Tadashi curled his lips. "Uh, maybe. We don't want it falling off when he's being transported. We'll figure it out."

Baymax then found himself enveloped in a hug from the three, with Mochi chirping happily from the couch. He hugged them back, and patted Mochi's head when they pulled away.

With that, the wrapping paper was cleaned up and the brothers descended into playing with their gifts. Tadashi video chatted with the rest of the gangs to show them his new cards, only to have Hiro shove his new robot action figure in the camera's face.

Baymax chose to follow Aunt Cass into the kitchen while she started on breakfast.

"Christmas is a confusing time," he mentioned to her.

Aunt Cass perked up, startled. "Really? I thought you understood it. Has to be easier to comprehend than Halloween."

"It is," Baymax agreed, "however, it is also...unusual. I did not know people could experience such high levels of joy from all the aspects of Christmas. I still do not understand what you get out of the Christmas tree or the mythical Santa Claus or coloring everything red, green, and white; however, it seems to be another part of humanity that I simply must accept without understanding. Christmas is not harmful."

"O...kay," Aunt Cass replied slowly. She pressed her lips in a thin line. Turning her head over her shoulder towards the living room, she gave an adoring smile. "Honestly, I don't really care about those parts. Well, I do! But not as much as that."

She jerked her chin towards the living room.

Hiro was leaning over the top of Tadashi's shoulders, his head planted on top of his, flying his robot through the air for the phone camera. Tadashi's expression was half annoyed with his brother's antics and half delighted at the playfulness of the situation.

"Those boys mean the world to me and I love to see them happy," she said. "This time of year is supposed to be joyful, so we do what we can to make ourselves and each other happy. If that means bringing a tree of all things into the living room and covering it in tinsel and lights, so be it. As long as we get to be together and see each other smile."

That still did not answer Baymax's questions, but he found the notion easier to accept this time around. "I suppose so. It makes you three happy to see me wear my ribbon, does it not?"

"Exactly," Aunt Cass nodded. "We know you're not 'happy' per se, but the boys love you and so do I. Hiro really wanted to do something nice for you, to say thanks for being his friend and helping him out."

"Because it makes him happy."

"It makes him happy to say thank you, and it does because you make him happy," she told him. "I know you don't understand holidays all that well - I can only imagine what you'll think of Easter - but Hiro didn't want to leave you out of the celebrations. You're important to him, about as much as we are. That's the only part of Christmas that really matters. I think it's a big part of what makes these silly things so fun."

She pointed to the near empty plate of cookies left overnight on the counter, where, suspiciously, only one Rudolph cookie was left.

"I see," he remarked. "Thank you, Aunt Cass. This explanation has been helpful."

She gave him a fast hug that he returned. "You're welcome. Merry Christmas, Baymax."

"Merry Christmas," he said.

**Author's Note:**

> Robo-Electrica IX Program. That sounds like a video game. Don't let me name hardware ever again, haha. Let's pretend Robo-Electrica is the name of the company, which makes hardware designed to help roboticists? (On that note, if anyone has any tips for the unscientifically inclined such as myself on how to start studying the various fields the gang majors in for the purposes of writing accurate or close to accurate fic, those tips would be lovingly appreciated.)
> 
> ANYWAY, this turned out to be kind of a character study for Baymax. I don't write from his perspective - or about him at all - that often, so this was a bit of a challenge. Doesn't help that he canonically doesn't have emotions I can toy around with. I hoped I kept him in character, but there are lines where I felt like I was slipping. Overall, though, I hope it turned out okay. I didn't want to do the old "person who doesn't understand the meaning of Christmas" trope here, especially since I think Baymax would get the sentimental meaning pretty easily, but this quickly turned into...something else kind of like that? Eh. Would you believe I originally only planned to have one scene that took place on Christmas Day?
> 
> Well, I hope this was enjoyable! Merry Christmas, everybody!


End file.
